Goetz Middle School eighth-grader Taylor Cusick earned three medals and had the top all-around score at the Level 7 USA Gymnastics State Championships as a member of Galaxy Gymnastics in Freehold. Galaxy gymnasts (back row, left to right) Claudia Bellafiore, Anna Pagliaro, Cusick, (front row, left to right) Caitlyn Dolan, Alexi Dufrene and Brooke McNamara placed eighth as a team. Taylor Cusick, an eighth-grader at Goetz Middle School, has been working hard in gymnastics for a day like she had recently in the Level 7 state championships at Bergen County College in Paramus.
Taylor, 14, who a year ago was not ready to compete in the USA Gymnastics (USAG) state championships, had the highest allaround score of the day at 37.70 while competing for Galaxy Gymnastics in Freehold. She earned medals in three events, as she finished second on the balance beam with a score of 9.45, third in the floor exercise at 9.50 and fourth in the uneven bars at 9.35. Her 9.40 score in vault was just short of a medal.
“I felt really good that day,” said Cusick, who especially enjoys floor exercise and vaulting. “People don’t understand what you go through, all the hours you put in. It’s hard.”
Cusick said she puts in more than 20 hours a week, and her schedule is especially demanding since she also has to find time for homework in order to stay on the honor roll.
She sat out 10 months with an injury and lost a coach last year who had worked with her for eight years, leaving her on the eve of a big meet at the ESPN facility in Orlando.
Cusick tried another gym, but it did not offer the USAG program and the training demands that she had enjoyed. She returned to Galaxy under new coaches starting last October. They helped her bring out her best in competition and changed her uneven bars routine, helping improve her scores in that event.
“Those coaches brought her to another level,” Cusick’s mom, Michelle, said.
There were those who hinted that Taylor Cusick was too old at 14 years old to be competing in a program that has many in the 11-12 age group at her level. Her mom said she wanted the tough regimen at Galaxy and did not go to other programs that might be more recreational, as some people suggested to her.
“They’d say at those other places she would have fun there and be with her friends, but that’s not what she wanted,” Michelle said. “She wants to work hard. It’s very tough. She’s very dedicated, and there were people insinuating she’s too old, but she just trained harder. They suggested she go to another program, but she’s truly dedicated to the sport and worked hard to get to where she’s at.”
Taylor Cusick first got involved in gymnastics at age 5. She switched from dance and acrobatics classes that she was taking to gymnastics at Galaxy shortly after it switched ownership from Wilton Academy.
Cusick also devotes some time helping raise money and supporting New Jersey Special Olympics.